Editors Note:
With the Italian Wars featuring large in the club this year and with Mr Stephen H. volunteering (note - a volunteer is worth ten pressed men) to organise Pavia 1525, for this year's Gus Murchie Memorial Game in December, it's time to start warming up a set of rules and filling gaps in figure collections to make sure everything is ready for the year ahead.
Thus to get things warmed-up Stephen has set the scene for our Italian Wars theme with a brief history of events surrounding our refight of the battle of Cerignola, in Apulia part of the then Kingdom of Naples.
The Italian Wars, Background
Italy was rich by comparison to the rest of Western Europe and warfare was not destructive to prosperity. Modern banking and double-entry book keeping created riches by the pen, not the sword, however all this changed when King Charles VIII of France invaded in 1494 to secure his claims to The Duchy of Milan and The Kingdom of Naples; from then on Italy was plagued by warfare as other competing European powers wanted their slice of the cake too.
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_War_of_1494%E2%80%931495 |
First French Campaign
In 1494, the 22 year old glory-hungry, King Charles crossed into Italy to press his claims. The French had a powerful army composing of traditional aristocratic cavalry, a modern artillery train (one on wheels) and with the support of Swiss mercenary infantry.
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| Portrait of King Charles VIII of France (1470–1498), wearing the Collar of the Order of Saint Michael - Artist unknown |
The ruler of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, was unpopular with his subjects and the French soon overran his Duchy, but Naples at the far end of the Italian peninsula, was a more difficult proposition. By a combination of threats, inducements and the support of The Pope, King Charles marched his army the length of Italy and captured Naples from King Ferdinand, who was related to the Spanish Royal House of Aragon.
Holding Naples was another matter however and the next year the French loaded up their loot and set off north. En route, they fought an Italian army at Fornova, where with both sides claimed victory. With Charles now back in France his conquests were soon lost as Sforza and Ferdinand re-established their domains. Charles died childless, possibly by poisoning, in 1498 and was succeeded by his cousin Louis XII.
Politically The Pope, Alexander VI (aka Rodrego Borgia), welcomed the French involvement in Italy as
he regarded the Napolitans as a threat to The Papal State.
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| Alexander VI (Borgia, 1492-1503) - Attributed to Pedro Berruguete |
One of Pope Alexander’s ambitions was to bring the Papal State into tighter control, and when his son Giovanni and commander of The Papal Army, was murdered in 1497, Cesare, a man of unbridled ambition, took over.
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| Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) Unknown author probably after a portrait by Bartolomeo Veneto |
Knowing the French ambitions in Italy, Cesare immediately visited France to ingratiate himself, as he needed French support for his ambitions as much as the French needed his father’s support for theirs. Cesare couldn’t inherit the papal lands from his father, so he set about carving out a state for himself from them and other adjacent states, thus caught between French and Cesare’s ambitions, the other Italian states were in a difficult position.
Second French Campaign
King Louis XII was in his thirties, an experienced commander, administrator and survivor. His cousin
Charles had been trying to do him down for years; not content with his Italian ambition Charles engaged in a dynastic struggle with Louis’ branch of the French royal family, and on assuming the throne Charles arranged the marriage of his crippled and infertile sister to Louis.
When besieged in Italy, as part of the Milan campaign, Charles had been tardy in relieving Louis, and on top of that Charles had refused to make Louis, The Duke of Milan and had instead sent him to Normandy where he was subsequently investigated for wrong-doing, thus in this venomous internecine environment, poisoning your cousin is a minor matter.
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| Louis XII, King of France (1462-1515) - from the Workshop of Jean Perréal |
Haughty French aristocrats sneered at Louis’ practical manners calling him common but Louis didn’t
care, he was king now. By reducing state expenditure and increasing tax revenue, Louis soon raised
the finances to campaign in Italy and reassert what his cousin had won but so quickly lost.
Louis overcame Ludavico Sforza whom had re-established himself as Duke of Milan again and then set
about consolidating his rule over the Duche, but his biggest problem was a dispute with the Swiss, partly over wages and partly because part of The Milanese Duchy wanted to join the Swiss cantons.
Louis, a man who knew how far a duct went, and also that Swiss mercenary infantry were vital for
his next campaign reluctantly settled his Swiss troops wage demands and then the Swiss Diet’s demands for territorial concessions.
Louis now turned to Naples and marched south. However rather than fight, a political solution was
brokered. Naples would be Louis’ but Southern Italy would remain under the King Ferdinand; such a
solution could only be temporary at best and Louis returned to France, leaving Naples under his
Viceroy.
The Spanish
In 1502, King Ferdinand seeing Louis and Cesare sufficiently engaged elsewhere decided, it was time
to test the French in the South; and so Spanish reinforcements were shipped into the kingdom and by the end of the year the Spanish were gaining the upper hand.
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General Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1453-1515), nicknamed the Great Captain - Eduardo Carrio |
Louis tried for a compromise formula involving the engagement of his infant daughter Princess Claude to the Spanish heir Prince Charles, with the view that on their majority, both would become the rulers of Naples; unfortunately nobody seemed to have told the Spanish General Gonzalo de Cordoba though, who continued to campaign with increasing success.
The Borgia Collapse
These campaigns cost a fortune, and in the past a state could campaign only for so long, before the annual tax revenue was exhausted. With the advent of modern banking and accurate book-keeping, credit was now available on an unimagined scale. However, while armies could be supplied and equipped on credit, secured against future years tax revenue, the soldiers still demanded payment in coin.
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| “Money Money Money, it’s an Italian World…” Golden Florins |
To raise the necessary coin and pay for Cesare’s ambitions, Alexander expanded the size of the College
of Cardenal’s at a going rate per new cardinal; this was outright simony and a clear violation of cannon law, not that Alexander’s scruples were bothered.
The older cardinals were outraged and before long Alexander and Cesare both fell ill from some mysterious ailment (aka poisoning). Alexander died and Cesare was so debilitated, he was never the same man again. At the next papal conclave, a compromise candidate was chosen, but this new pope was old and died six months later. At the next conclave the anti-Borgia party was ready; the new pope Julius II hated the Borgias.
With the end of the Borgia papacy Cesare’s ambitions were doomed and the position of Louis’
Neapolitan viceroy untenable. Isolated from reinforcements, dislike by the population, and increasing
Spanish boldness would result in the loss of Naples, followed by that of Milan not long afterwards.
The next French king, Francis II, will campaign in Italy to re-establish his claim to Milan, but that is
something for another day. Naples however was now firmly in the grip of Spain.
Battle of Cerignola, 28th April 1503
So to our Cerignola refight, a battle fought on the 28th April 1503 between Spanish and French armies outside the town of Cerignola, Apulia, Kingdom of Naples (now in modern-day Italy), approximately fifty miles west of Bari.
The two armies are arrayed as per the usual interpretations of the battle illustrated in the map below with our Spanish forces on the slopes before the town that has the Spanish infantry and guns deployed behind a defensive ditch with their cavalry covering the flanks.
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| Our game coincides with the launch of a new title from Helion that covers Cerignola https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/the-italian-wars-volume-5-the-franco-spanish-war-in-southern-italy-1502-1504.php |
Meanwhile the French with their Swiss pike blocks mirror the Spanish setup prepared to advance towards the slope and fight their way over the ditch covered by their cavalry.
The rules we used for this game was Swordpoint Second Edition together with its various rule additions to facilitate games from this era.
As you can see the Italian Wars rival Napoleonics in terms of colour and dress extravagance that provides a feast for the eye, with unlike say the Wars of the Roses, plenty of cavalry of all types taking their place alongside splendidly dressed infantry.
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| The French stat-sheet for our game |
Thus mine and indeed the Spanish cavalry out on the left flank rode out to contest the advance of our French adversaries as the missile troops of both sides set about each other in the early exchanges.
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| Similarly, as with the French, the Spanish stat-sheet. |
This saw mounted crossbows, and javelin armed Jinetes skirmishing against the French left flank as opposing foot crossbowmen and arquebusiers let fly whilst the Spanish guns played on the French centre.
The skirmishing and cavalry jousts had its effect in stymying the French advance and thus keeping them under the play of the Spanish guns longer than they would have preferred, with the Spanish cavalry on my flank particularly fortunate to maintain themselves longer than they could have expected, forcing the deployment of the armoured heavies to maintain the position a little longer.
However the advance of the Swiss pike phalanxes would not be denied and with the Spanish cavalry forced back on its own lines, the French centre pressed on into the Spanish centre for an assault across the ditch in the face of musketry and cannon shot.
We had six players involved in our game, three a side, and the turns seemed to move along at a good pace, making the rules a contender for use with a big club game like the one planned for the end of the year.
My thanks to Stephen H and Chas who pulled the game together in the run up to Xmas last year, making sure their respective collections could facilitate our game, and to Vince, Steve M, Bob and John R for the fun of playing it.
JJ
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